Thursday, 25 November 2010

Researching website layouts

The first step is to look at websites and compare layouts. In my opinion, some of the ones below are really good but others don't work as well.

The one above for example, has a consistent layout and is and in terms of navigation accessibility is good and easy to use.

I don't think this is one is as effective as the homepage is too simple. Also, the disadvantage of having a website like this is that the search engines will not pick up any content from this page.
It is good to have some information on the first page as this is what the web browsers look for. However, I quite like how the information is organized in the other pages.

I personally am not so keen on websites that use photos as their background. I am much a fan of white space in everything I do!
I think specially in this case, where their trying to show their work, the photos in the background work as a distraction. In terms of navigation it is also bit over complicated as you have to click to many times to actually get where you want to.
In terms of layout it isn't consistent which again, in my opinion, doesn't work so well.

This one is very simple but I like it. The content is all on the homepage which makes it easier for search engines to find.
It has a simple navigation system and the layout looks consistent. This layout probably wouldn't work as well for people that have got varied work as they would need to separate things into categories.

On this one, the image on the homepage keeps changing until you click to 'enter'. Again, as I said previously, this reduces the possibilities of your website being found.
The information is easy to find on here but I think the 'gallery' section could be improved as it looks quite confusing. I think if the work was put into different categories it would work much better.